This book illuminates, like no other I've read, the startling history and the complex present of the nations of the Caribbean. Written with passion and joyful music in the prose, Island People will become an indispensable companion for anybody travelling to the Caribbean - or dreaming of doing so -- SUKETU MEHTA A heartfelt Caribbean journey . . . through the places, literature and music of the region to beautifully illuminate the histories of people and continents . . . Terrific -- Anita Sethi * * Observer * * Many have tried this before - to get hold of, in its entirety, the volatile, beautiful, relentlessly shifting Caribbean. Nobody has succeeded as dazzlingly as Joshua Jelly-Schapiro -- MARLON JAMES An elegant travel book channels Naipaul and Trollope as it delves into the brutal history and unique allure of the Caribbean . . . Island People, written by a careful and compassionate author, is a worthy travel and history book, a fresh study * * Guardian * * A travelogue of love and scholarship . . . does the region splendid justice * * New York Times * * One of those rare writers who bridges worlds - between deep scholarship and lively and accessible writing, between islands and mainlands, between big ideas and precise details, between history and possibility -- REBECCA SOLNIT Allows the Caribbean to stand on its own and shine . . . A celebration of culture, music and literature . . . shows the magic of the people of the Caribbean . . . infused with passion, love and vibrancy -- Sharmaine Lovegrove * * Monocle Arts Review * * Joshua Jelly-Schapiro possesses both a humanist's irrepressible empathy and a journalist's necessary skepticism. He reports carefully, researches exhaustively, cares deeply, and writes beautifully -- DAVE EGGERS A creative hybrid of travel writing and in-depth reportage . . . Its balance of skepticism and enthusiasm is driven by both wide knowledge and a bracing sympathy for the oppressed . . . He has a journalist's flair for interviews and is as deft with chance encounters as with pop idols. Above all he finds dignity as well as excitement in this beautiful archipelago -- Colin Thubron * * New York Review of Books * * A pleasingly broad study of the Caribbean and its vital, indecipherable blend of peoples * * Financial Times * * Joshua Jelly-Schapiro's grand book on the Caribbean is so striking in form and vision that it amounts to something new - a constant surprise . . . An important book filled with many truths -- HILTON ALS A marvel of a book . . . Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a superb young writer who brings to this sea of dreams a scholar's authority, a novelist's way with character, and a top reporter's talent for stumbling into exactly that tale, however improbable and fantastic, that most needs telling -- MARK DANNER Sensitive to the power of place to anchor or disturb identity, Josh Jelly-Schapiro maps the Caribbean through its myth and its music, its history and its intellectual tradition. Erudite, reflective and savvy, Island People is as much a pleasure to read as it is an education -- GAIUTRA BAHADUR